The New Jim Crow

What if the biggest mystery surrounding Col. Moammar Gadhafi had nothing to do with his long, brutal reign as the world’s most eccentric and violent leader turned pariah?

And what if a long-lost letter from a Catholic cardinal who knew Gadhafi’s true identity was evidence that could have solved the mystery?

To many Libyan people, the biggest question mark about Gadhafi does not involve his repressive and dictatorial rule, delusional statements or brazen lies. Behind closed doors, for years, they’ve wondered if he is Jewish. Last week the issue came out in the open, asNBC’sRichard Engel reported from Libya that one in five rebels was fighting Gadhafi because he believes the leader is Jewish.

Conflicting reports surrounding Gadhafi’s birth have circulated since about 1970, two years after a Gadhafi-led coup made him the de facto leader of Libya.

In a handful of biographies from years ago, mostly written by Europeans, Gadhafi is almost always described as being born in a tent in Sirt, the son of a poor, illiterate Bedouin sheepherder and his wife.

But the hushed-up rumors in Libya about Gadhafi’s parentage involved his mother being Jewish. The stories have conflicted over the years, and the narratives are different. One had her converting to Judaism at age 9. In another, Gadhafi’s grandmother is Jewish but leaves her husband for an Arab sheik.

A more specific claim, backed up by a Libyan historian, is that Gadhafi was born out of wedlock to a Jewish woman and an Italian soldier in a village east of Tripoli. Because of the shame surrounding the birth, the baby was given to a Catholic cardinal who in turn gave the child to the sheepherder and his wife.

American Muslims face a rising tide of religious discrimination in U.S. communities, workplaces and schools nearly a decade after the September 11 attacks, a senior Justice Department official said on Tuesday.

Evidence of growing anti-Muslim bigotry, aired at a Senate Judiciary hearing, poses a challenge for President Barack Obama as his administration works to foster good relations with American Muslims at a time when the United States is threatened by home-grown terrorism.

“We should all agree that it’s wrong to blame an entire community for the wrongdoing of a few. Guilt by association is not the American way,” said Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, who chaired the hearing.

He said Muslims account for less than 1 percent of the U.S. population but more than 14 percent of religious discrimination cases investigated by the federal government and 25 percent of religious discrimination cases involving workplaces.

The Justice Department has investigated over 800 incidents of violence, vandalism and arson against people believed to be Muslim, Arab or South Asian, since the September 11 attacks.

U.S. homeland security officials say the United States faces a home-grown threat from Islamic radicalization, including attempts by al Qaeda to radicalize and recruit U.S. Muslims to carry out attacks here and abroad.

The hearing quickly took on a partisan edge when Durbin responded to criticism from Republican Peter King, chairman of a House of Representatives panel widely criticized for a hearing on radicalization in the U.S. Muslim community less than three weeks ago.

King said on Monday that the civil rights discussion would “perpetuate the myth that there is a serious anti-Islam issue in this country.”

But at the start of the session Durbin shot back: “Inflammatory speech from prominent public leaders creates a fertile climate for discrimination.”

“All of us, especially those of us in public life, have a responsibility to choose our words carefully. We must condemn anti-Muslim bigotry and make it clear that we won’t tolerate religious discrimination.”

Thomas Perez, the assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights, said anti-Muslim bigotry has brought a surge in the number of federal discrimination cases involving zoning boards and other local authorities that have acted to prevent mosques from opening in their communities.

The Justice Department has begun 14 such cases since May 2010, around the time when plans for a mosque near the site of the World Trade Center attack in New York seized media headlines and ignited a national political uproar.

Before last May, the government had pursued only 10 land-use discrimination cases over a decade.

Haitians headed to the polls to pick a new president Sunday among conflicting reports that former candidate wannabe Wyclef Jean was shot.

Jean said a bullet grazed his hand as he stepped out of a car to make a phone call, but local police claim he was only injured by glass.

“The way I can explain it is that the bullet grazed me in my right hand,” said the hip-hop singer, who has been in Haiti campaigning on behalf of Michel (Sweet Micky) Martelly. “I heard blow, blow, blow and I just looked at my hand.”

Jean said he was in a car with a driver in the Delmas section of the capital at the time. He doesn’t know who fired the shots, or whether they were directed at him, the 37-year-old Grammy winner said.

Cops down-played the violence, and say the New Jersey resident – a Haitian-American who hoped to compete in the Caribbean nation’s ongoing presidential race – suffered only a minor cut to his hand from glass in an apparent accident.

“We met with the doctor who saw him and he confirmed Wyclef was cut by glass,” Vanel Lacroix, police chief in Petionville where Jean is staying, told Reuters.

Singer, and abortive Presidential candidate Wyclef Jean was shot yesterday while attending a campaign rally for Mickey Martelly, one of the two candidates in the runoff election. Wyclef appears to be OK, and was released from the hospital last night with a wound to his right hand.

Wyclef Jean, the American singer and music producer, has been shot in the Haitian capital while campaigning for a presidential candidate Michel Martelly.

The 41-year-old former member of music group The Fugees was in a stable condition in hospital in Port-au-Prince on Sunday, being treated for a bullet wound to his right hand.

His management declared via Twitter: “We have spoken to Wyclef, he is ok. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.”

Following last year’s tragic earthquake, the hip-hop sensation declared he would stand for president, only to be told he was inelegible. Instead he returned to Haiti to campaign for Michel Martelly.

The shooting comes as polls open for a presidential run-off on the Caribbean island.

On Sunday Haiti’s 4.7 million voters will choose between a political newcomer, entertainer and singer Martelly, 50, and former first lady Mirlande Manigat, 70, a law professor and opposition matriarch.

It follows a chaotic first round vote on November 28 that dissolved into fraud allegations and unrest.

A Wisconsin judge issued an order Friday temporarily blocking implementation of a law that would severely restrict collective bargaining rights for most public employees in the state.

Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued a restraining order that stops publication of the law signed last week by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Governor Walker (R). Halting that procedural step has the effect of blocking the law, which would go into effect once it is formally published.

The judge’s order came after Dane County’s Democratic District Attorney Ismael Ozanne filed suit alleging that a joint committee of the legislature violated the state’s open meeting law when it abruptly called a session to facilitate the law’s passage last week.

The judge’s ruling does not speak to the legal merits of the law but says that the lawsuit over the session has to be completed before the law is allowed to move forward.

Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, praised the judge’s action.“Judge Sumi confirmed today what we knew all along — that the bill stripping hundreds of thousands of hardworking Wisconsinites of their voice on the job was rammed through illegally in the dark of the night,” Neuenfeldt said.

In a statement, governor’s spokesman Cullen Werwie said: “The legislation is still working through the legal process. We are confident the provisions of the budget repair bill will become law in the near future.”